The National Security Agency is sharing new guidance to help organizations limit an adversary’s movement on the internal network by adopting zero-trust framework principles.

The NSA released today zero-trust guidance for the network and environment component, which comprises all hardware and software assets, non-person entities, and inter-communication protocols.

“The network and environment pillar isolates critical resources from unauthorized access by defining network access, controlling network and data flows, segmenting applications and workloads, and using end-to-end encryption” – National Security Agency.

Through macro segmentation, organizations can limit lateral movement on the network by creating network areas for users in each department.

The NSA explains that “Micro segmentation involves isolating users, applications, or workflows into individual network segments to further reduce the attack surface and limit the impact should a breach occur.”

For each of the four components in the network and environment pillar of the zero-trust architecture, the NSA describes four levels of maturity, from the preparation step to the advanced phase where extensive controls and management systems are implemented to allow optimal visibility, monitoring, and to ensure the growth of the network.